Resurrection Moments

 To trap Jesus, the Sadducees who don’t believe in resurrection, asked complicated question about a widow who’d   been married seven times according to Moses Law.

Sadducees ask, “Now then, at the resurrection, whose wife will she be of the seven, since all of them were married to her?”

Jesus states they are wrong because they do not know the Scriptures or God's power.

He explains that in the resurrection, people neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.

Earthly marriage systems, Jesus says, don’t apply to the resurrected state.

The Sadducees basically asked an uninformed question.

Over the years I preached on the Resurrection that as a Christian you must believe it

 Resurrection is something you conveniently declare during worship.

Jesus’ resurrection isn’t something we completely understand.

Caroline Lewis tells of the time, after a lecture a woman spoke to her saying, “My cup was empty. Today was my road to Emmaus.”

The “empty cup”, I think, refers to believing, declaring, and understanding.

The Road to Emmaus” she referred to, I feel is a story of the beginning of her journey.

It was her experience, her resurrection moment.

Resurrection moments change life.

 Samaritan woman at the well, the healing of the man born blind, the raising of Lazarus, change one from death to life, darkness to light.

Resurrection means encountering Jesus, being called out of darkness, and sharing a meal with him.

When we are experiencing darkness or an “empty cup”, Jesus calls us into the light to walk and dine with him, to have a resurrection moment.

What Is Salvation?

John Wesley

 

 And first let us inquire,

"What is salvation?"

The salvation which is here spoken of is not what is frequently understood by that word, the going to heaven, eternal happiness. 

It is not the soul’s going to paradise, termed by our Lord, ‘Abraham’s bosom.’

 It is not a blessing which lies on the other side death, or (as we usually speak) in the other world. 

The very words of the text itself put this beyond all question. 

‘Ye are saved.’ It is not something at a distance: it is a present thing, a blessing which, through the free mercy of God, ye are now in possession of. 

Nay, the words may be rendered, and that with equal propriety, ‘Ye have been saved.’ 

So that the salvation which is here spoken of might be extended to the entire work of God, from the first dawning of grace in the soul till it is consummated in glory.” 

~ John Wesley (The Scripture Way of Salvation)